Like the pot calling the kettle orange

PICTURE a cast-iron casserole. If it’s bright orange, you’re probably thinking of Le Creuset, the 96-year-old, French cast-ironware brand gracing countless kitchens. Almost a century on from the first Le Creuset pot ever made, at Fresnoy-le-Grand in northern France, it continues to inspire in the kitchen.

Especially mine. As a little girl, I was warned by my mother not to touch the red-hot orange casseroles that came out of the oven. Then, one year, apparently I’d grown up, as I asked for one for my birthday. Every year since, my Le Creuset collection has grown.

I’m not the only 20-something magazine as a ‘small marker of stability and sophistication, coveted by young people for whom traditional indicators of both often remain out of reach’. Yet the brand is more than an Instagram trophy. Among friends who cook, an overwhelming number of them do so with cast iron.